This is intended as a meeting place for folk interested in the music I make with Marcus Cliffe as Miracle Mile or my solo stuff as 'Jones'.
I hope it'll be fun and might host some healthy banter; giving me a chance to share some music, video, thoughts etc.
It can get a little lonely in the attic; why not slide a note under the door...

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Albums for Life: 3: Joni Mitchell: Blue

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling

Looking for something, what can it be?

The simple poetry sounds like an entry from any young woman's diary.

The musical template is simple, understated: piano, guitar, dulcimer.
The musical hue is blue.
The message seemed simple enough too; this was an elegy to a lost bohemia.
At the turn of the 70s a sadness permeated American pop culture.

Introspective songwriters were everywhere.

No-one did 'introspection' more compellingly than Joni.
The hippie generation had stumbled and wasn't getting back up, the 60s, that decade of musical innovation and innocence had had its heart ripped out by Manson, Vietnam, Bobby Kennedy's assassination and the disintegration of the Beatles.

In 1970 Joni was just back from a jaunt living in a cliff cave in Matala, Crete, probably with the Greek God Apollo's first commandment ringing in her ears:'Know Thyself'.
That nirvana had been compromised by a local Greek entrepreneur who made the hippie haven into a sightseeing tour; concreting over the muddy town square to accommodate the tourists.'They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.'
Joni knew that travel stimulated her muse and wanted to break free from the claustrophobic rigors of the music industry. She'd made 3 successful albums since 1968 and her apparently idyllic LA lifestyle as a lady of the canyon was starting to pall."I was being isolated, starting to feel like a bird in a gilded cage."
She took with her a mountain dulcimer on which she composed and played for her fellow cave dwellers. Her monastic environment colored her writing.'The wind is in from Africa'.
The caves were on an arm of land that expended into deep water.
Joni was surrounded by one colour: deep blue.'Blue' was not so much a love letter to the loss, more a mournful recognition that the ideal of the comforts of the Laurel Canyon community were a thing of the past. She'd had affairs with Graham Nash and James Taylor but her love life was tainted and tempered by an ever inquisitive, demanding, almost self destructive muse.

'Oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love yousomeOh I love you when I forget about me'

Joni laments lost love specifically but the fanciful sorrow is both introspective and projected. Here was a lady, alone, band less. What could she do but make her own way, muttering as she meandered, inquisitive and vulnerable. 'Will you take me as I am?' A mind in pursuit of meaning; she asks a lot of questions but recognizes that there aren't always answers. Sometimes it's enough just to ask the question and recognize the wonders of mystery and the inevitability of loss; acknowledging that "sometimes there'll be sorrow". Sure, Joni's lost and lonely, but there's adventure in her journey and she's meeting it head on and wide eyed. I love the dawning openness of Joni's expression in this photo taken at the time...

Those observations and the questions resonate so keenly because they are not original thoughts; she is everyman/everywoman here, reflecting on her loss and accepting her lot. Whether she spoke for the listener was dependent on the listener. Were we stepping into her world, or she into ours?

"The beauty as a listener is you have an option. Either you can see yourself and your humanity in the songs, which is what I'm trying to do for the listeners. Or you can say 'that's the way she is and equate the songs with me. The richest way, the way to get the most out of it, is to see yourself in it."

She colours her canvas carefully but here's no bile in the recognitions; just a big broken hearted sigh.'Blue' strikes at the heart of introspection.

What does that mean?Blue, in Joni's own words 'gave melancholy its proper due.'

The fragility and intensity of the soul searching is compelling, touching, irresistible, unfathomable, because she articulates the bleeding obvious but wraps the songs in such delicate, specific personal observations that we can surely never grasp their full meaning. They are steeped in her own secret biography but she leaves just enough room for us to insert ourselves into the stories.

"What I did was bring just a little more detail to pop lyrics like 'I feel blue' for example, pairing it with more specific character and metaphors and making the music actually feel blue with what I call my chords of inquiry. I was trying to grow up the American pop song into an art song.'

Joni colours her characters and metaphors artfully with an obvious sense of compassionate responsibility. There's no saccharine in the nostalgia. Neither is there bitterness or self pity. She doesn't harangue or bang on. She risks all, unveils her mysteries, makes herself vulnerable, strips herself bare and asks 'will you take me as I am?' In laying her soul bare, confession is a major part of the process. She sublimates herself to achieve the sublime. Shame surely leads to salvation. At the time her contemporaries wondered at her revelations. Was she revealing too much?

"They were embarrassed for me. Because the popular song had been about posturing. It had been self-aggrandizing. The feminine appetite for intimacy is stronger than it is in men. So my songwriter friends listened and they all shut down, even Neil Young. The only one who spoke out was Kris Kristofferson. 'Jesus Joni,' he said. 'Save something for yourself.'"

This is as genuine and as generous as it gets.
As she sings, so the songs become her.
She recognizes her moment, acquaints herself with her (gulp) inner self... and moves on.
It's almost as though the song itself is a baptism.
Holy water is seemingly everywhere.

'River' always reminds me of the Ted Koosner poem 'Skater'.

She was all in black but for a yellow pony tailthat trailed from her cap, and bright blue gloves

that she held out wide, the feathery fingers spread, as surely she stepped, click-clack, onto the frozentop of the world. And there, with a clatter of blades,she began to braid a loose path that broadenedinto a meadow of curls. Across the ice she swoopedand then turned back and, halfway, bent her legsand leapt into the air the way a crane leaps, blue gloveslifting her lightly, and turned a snappy half-turnthere in the wind before coming down, arms wide,skating backward right out of that moment, smiling backat the woman she'd been just an instant before.

I'm realizing that 'Blue' is important to me because it helped me to understand women.
There's a difference, a difference that needs to be celebrated daily.
Here was another blithe spirit, kindred but different.
Our journeys are similar.
We're both searching for meaning.
We're both searching for love.
We're both searching for home.
We can see the signs better if we have another perspective.Blue flows beautifully and is imperfectly perfect because, for all of its undeniable progress, it is unresolved; not quite long enough; the river doesn't quite reach the sea.
Yet still, the raw, tender beauty of Joni's artfully nuanced song unwinds like a river.
There's serenity on the surface, but the river is deep and, ultimately, unfathomable.

Beautifully written profile and analysis of a fearless artist. Another icon that I've never fully appreciated. Initially I had slotted 'Travelogue' into my list, but when I withdrew Smiths' 'Hatful Of Hollow' realized it too was bending the rules. I love the orchestral arrangements and particularly Joni's smoky, mature voice on 'Travelogue' & 'Both Sides Now' completely recasting many of her classics. Would be in my Top 30...

Love the photo of Matala. brings back so many sweet memories...

Also, I finally picked up Ted Kooser's, 'Delights and Shadows' on a recent jaunt to TO. It's a pretty slim volume for $20, but certainly worthwhile. I also bought Theodore Roethke's 'Straw For The Fire' which is a scattershot collection of the writer's random thoughts & observations, quotes, poetry fragments, bon mots, journal entries etc. Great "on the john" reading...

Travelogue is probably my most listened to Joni these days. I tried to find a way of sneaking in... the interpretations are so different. The luxuriant orchestrations are a bit rich for some but I love it; you're right about her voice; I think that all of those fags (cigarettes to you) have thickened up her bottom end (so to speak). Those early tones could be shrill (Di thinks that she sings for dogs...) My favourite is the reinterpretation of 'Amelia' which is sonic heaven to me...'Delights and Shadows' is my bedside book in Corsica. 'Straw for the Fire' shall be added to the 'john' there. I will be quoting from there as the 'crapper rapper'.... I'll start with:"If you can't think at least sing...'

Again I've got nothing by her , haunted by that prejudice of youth when I lumped a whole lot of American artists together and labelled not for me, and then for some reason not picked up when I got older and wiser, making do with a lot of "inspired by"s instead. So Blue will be my first purchase and first listen

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To The Bone is beautiful, delicate, like whispers in the wind or that glimpse from the corner of your eye. It draws you in and seduces you with both sounds and words. It's Trevor Jones' most simple and perhaps honest record - emotions stripped down 'to the bone' and the stripped down feel to the album compliment the music perfectly.If you hear a more beautiful album this year then I'll eat my Marshall gigging cap.

Macwood Fleet

I have been enjoying your excellent 'To the Bone' album over the past week. It's a quietly, powerful album that reveals more of itself upon repeat listens. The understated production works really well.

Cerdin Rogers

I just wanted to drop a quick note to say that I absolutely love the record. Although musically it’s clearly much more stripped down than In Cassidy’s Care, it is every bit it’s equal! It’s a record that I play all the way through because it is incredibly consistent and it’s almost a cliché to state that that’s a rarity these days. This being the case, it’s almost unfair to single out particular tracks but 'Phil The Hat' is one of the most moving songs that I have heard for some time and I think 'Fireworks' could be my favourite song of yours. Now I just need to write a review that will do the record justice!!!

Rob Marsh

A big thanks for, once again, producing a beautiful album. I'm clumsy with words but even the most articulate of people couldn't put down on paper just how great this album is. It simply needs to be listened to. No other artist can strike up emotions and imagery like you can, and for this I thank you.I engross myself in your albums like a great book that I can't put down. I know we're only in March but 'To the Bone' is album of the year. Anyone who says different has neither a heart or a soul.

Phil Hogarth

'To the Bone' arrived yesterday. I have listened a few times. For me is another masterprice full of wonderful melodies. Thank for your music. Un abrazo(regards).

Mario Matamoro

I have got mildly excited as my wife (Di) likes 'Books to Bed'.Just played the album 3 times in a row. I guess that you have always written close to your heart but this time it just seems more personal. I have to confess I felt the tears welling up at the end. Maybe I'm getting to be a big softie in my senior years but this album has a chunk of your soul and I think that Marcus has responded with a sensitive and sympathetic production that elevates the album. I am looking forward to getting to know it more.I failed to mention that it is very very good! I love the way it ends...

Chris Guildersleve

Bloody Hell TREV, what are you trying to do to me?? I am now going to call you the Marquis of Melancholy. You ripped my heart out and sliced it up!!! I almost got in the car this morning and drove up to give you a big old man hug!!!! Still digesting To The Bone and trying I gets head around it. One thing though, the ending, genius. Very Sigur Ros.

Nick Baker

Beautiful is how I would describe it, Ive had a good few listens now and it's everything you hope for, nothing more and nothing less...!Simply Stunning to be honest, keep going...

Geoff Wright

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